The numbers below are estimates for the average home in Bakersfield. Your home is unique, and your financial estimates depend on that uniqueness. If you’d like to get personalized solar estimates for your home, our network of solar experts are on call to assist you.

It might be “California’s Country Music Capital,” but we’ve got one reason for you Bakersfield homeowners to stop cryin’ into your beers: solar panels on your roof can save you a lot of money! That’s because electricity in California is expensive, which you know, because you live there.

This page is a short guide to the costs and financial rewards of home solar in Bakersfield, California. It’s got info on relevant California incentives and solar laws, but it is not meant to be your only source of information about going solar in Bakersfield. Check out our main California page for more extensive content about all things related to home solar in The Golden State!

You can install solar panels on your roof that will greatly reduce your power bill, paying off their cost in short order and essentially making you money like an investment over the long-term. Solar panels are covered by 25-year warranties, which ensures your roof will be paying dividends long after all the neighborhood kids are out of college.

Let’s dive in to how solar can work for you in Bakersfield!

Important numbers for solar on the average Bakersfield home

5.6-kW

Average System Size

$13.1k

Cost after incentives

7

Years to payback

$55.9k

Savings after 25 years

Those numbers look pretty good, and they can get even better depending on your installer and annual increases in the cost of electricity. Keep in mind, those numbers are for an average home in Bakersfield, where average electricity usage is pretty high. Many factors determine how much you could save, and if you’re a heavy user of electricity, your up-front costs are comparatively lower, and your savings go way up. If you’re looking for a custom estimate for your home, connect with our solar experts in Bakersfield today.

If you’d like to learn more about how we got those numbers, read on! Here’s our guide to the ins and outs of going solar in Bakersfield, California:

The cost of solar panels in 2018

Let’s cut to the chase: to offset its entire energy bill, the average home in Bakersfield needs a solar system of about 5.6 kilowatts (kW), which will cost somewhere between $12,750 and $14,250 in cash, after the federal solar tax credit. Even after that huge reduction, that might sound like a lot, but keep in mind that price is for something that saves you an additional $1,850 on energy in just the first year, and more over time as energy prices rise.

A 5.6-kW solar system will offset all that usage and save you around $1,850 a year, with the remaining $215 going to minimum service charges and what the utilities call “non-bypassable charges” (more on those below). A system that size would comprise about 16 350-watt solar panels which take up about 700 square feet of roof space.

Solar panels are priced based on cost per watt, and in Bakersfield in 2018, you can expect to spend a gross cost (before incentives) between $3.25 and $3.40 per watt for a system of average size, depending on the age and geometry of your roof, as well as other factors. That’s the price before the federal solar tax credit.

Solar Incentives for Bakersfield homeowners

California has benefited from a few factors that make solar here a better investment than it is in other places. First, the state has relatively high electricity costs, meaning the panels pay back their cost faster than in other places. Second, the Golden State has had a good history of supporting solar buyers with rebates and other incentives. But with the price to install solar at an all-time low, those incentives are all but gone.

That’s okay, though! The federal solar tax credit takes 30% of the cost of your system away, and the state of California does still have a few other juicy tidbits. Here’s a quick guide to what’s out there:

The federal solar tax credit

All solar systems installed on homes in the United States and paid for using cash or a solar loan qualify for a federal tax credit equal to 30% of the cost to install the system. Now, this is a tax credit, not a rebate, so you have to owe taxes in order to qualify, but even if you don’t pay a ton of taxes, you can roll over your credit to future years.

The 30% federal solar tax credit for our example 3.85-kW system would equal $3,927 (30% of the $13,090 cost to install). With the federal tax rate at about 12% for most folks, a married couple making more than about $33,000 per year can expect to owe that much in taxes, and collect their full tax credit by the end of the year. That’s a pretty low hurdle.

The reductions from the tax credit bring the cost down to $9,193, and that’s before you consider the effect of energy bill savings (which we’ll get to below).

Property tax exemptions for home solar in California

The state of California exempts home solar installations from property tax. That’s wonderful news for you, since the value of your home will go up by several thousand dollars when you add solar panels. A very solid study of home value increases from solar panels showed an average increase of about 70% of the gross (pre-incentive) cost to install the system. That’s exactly the same as the cost after the tax credit, so the average system of 3.85-kW at $13,100 might add about $9,200 in value to your home!

As long as you install solar before a 2024 deadline to end the property tax exemption, thank a state legislator!

Electricity bill savings from solar in Bakersfield

Saving money with solar in California is a no-brainer, considering just how much PG&E charges you for electricity. Whether you’re currently on a tiered rate plan of Time-of-Use (TOU), you can save a bundle with solar panels on your roof.

The reason you can save so much is because PG&E’s rates are insanely high. Nearly double the national average for most homeowners, they can jump to 4 times that for homes that use the most electricity. If your bills are higher than the average $173, you owe it to yourself to get a quote from a solar provider near you.

PG&E’s 2018 rates

If you’ve spent any time looking at your bill, you know that electricity pricing is complicated. Most people are on the standard E-1 residential rate plan, under which there are usage tiers that determine the final price you pay for electricity. And try as you might, it’s really difficult to keep all your usage on the low Tier 1 “baseline” rates.

Most homeowners in Bakersfield use about double the baseline, making their average cost for electricity a little over $.21/kWh. but add on the monthly minimum charges, and your rates look more like $.225/kWh. The 5.6-kW solar system we propose can wipe out nearly all the charges for electricity, because of something called “Net Energy Metering,” or NEM for short.

PG&E’s 2018 Net Metering Rates

OK, this is where home solar gets a bit complicated. See, California homeowners have installed a TON of solar panels over the past few years, and along with larger-scale solar installations, the state hit a legally-mandated cap for the amount of maximum amount of solar installed under what was known as “NEM 1.0.”

NEM 1.0 was typical net metering. That is, solar owners got a 1-to-1 reduction in their energy bills for every kWh of solar electricity their systems generated. The new NEM 2.0 system is a bit more complicated than that, because it requires all solar owners to switch to a time-of-use (TOU) billing plan and also receive a tiny bit less credit for each solar kWh sent to the grid.

Fortunately, the state legislature and Public Utilities Commission saw fit to make NEM a pretty good deal for everyone, and homeowners can still eliminate most of their energy bills with NEM 2.0. And with TOU billing, it’s possible to earn credit for more expensive “on-peak” kWh (anything between 4 and 9 pm), which earn you extra credit compared to off-peak kWh.

Payback estimate for an average Bakersfield home with solar panels

NEM 2.0 is quirky but it can be broken down to averages. The average homeowner in Bakersfield can save about $.20/kWh for every kWh their solar system generates, saving about $1,850 in the first year of operation.

Here’s how it works: PG&E keeps track of all your service and “non-bypassable” charges, for which is bills you at the end of each month. It also tracks how many kWh you’ve received from the utility and how many kWh your solar system sent to the grid during on-peak and off-peak times. The tracking is done on a 12-month basis, and at the end of your “year,” PG&E sends you the bill (or payment) for the net number of kWh you used (or generated).

The 12th-month bill is called the “annual true-up,” and for the average homeowner with a 5.6-kW system, it’ll be basically a wash, actually reducing the final months’ bill by about $5.50.

For example, if you installed the system in January and it began generating solar energy, you’d get a bill for $15.51 ($10.18 monthly service charge and $5.33 non-bypassable charges), and a NEM statement that indicated you used a net of 98.5 on-peak and 98.5 off-peak kWh (this assumes you both use and generate approximately 50% of your energy on-peak and 50% off-peak).

Your monthly bill would be between $15 and $20 a month for the rest of the year, and after a sunny summer, you’d end December with 184 kWh banked (92 each off- and on-peak). For that excess energy, you’d be paid about $.03/kWh, a rate which is called the “Net Surplus Compensation” rate. That’d take about $5.50 off your December bill, and you’d start a new 12-month period with a fresh slate, earning credits along the way.

Here’s how that would look based on a full year, compared to the old pre-solar bill:

Estimated 1st-year savings for a 5.6-kW solar system in Bakersfield

Month

kWh usage

Tier 1 kWh

Tier 1 Cost

Tier 2 kWh

Tier 2 Cost

Monthly fixed

Climate credit

Pre-solar bill

On-peak usage

Off-peak usage

On-peak solar kWh

Off-peak solar kWh

Non-bypassable

Bill after solar

Savings

On-peak net kWh

Off-peak net kWh

Totals

9,200

5,120.3

$1,083.92

4,079.7

$863.62

$119.90

-$78.84

$1,988.65

4,600

4,600

4,692

4692

$99.24

$134.79

$1,895.59

Jan

718

313.1

$66.28

404.9

$85.71

$10.18

$162.18

359

359

260.5

260.5

$5.33

$15.51

$146.67

98.5

98.5

Feb

619

282.8

$59.87

336.2

$71.17

$9.20

$140.24

309.5

309.5

304.5

304.5

$6.23

$15.43

$124.81

103.5

103.5

Mar

574

313.1

$66.28

260.9

$55.23

$10.18

$131.69

287

287

408

408

$8.34

$18.53

$113.17

-17.5

-17.5

Apr

545

303

$64.14

242

$51.23

$9.86

-$39.42

$85.81

272.5

272.5

425

425

$8.69

$0.00

$106.68

-170

-170

May

637

520.8

$110.25

116.2

$24.60

$10.18

$145.03

318.5

318.5

467.5

467.5

$10.07

$0.00

$145.03

-319

-319

Jun

888

504

$106.69

384

$81.29

$9.86

$197.84

444

444

465.5

465.5

$10.03

$19.26

$178.57

-340.5

-340.5

Jul

1,054

520.8

$110.25

533.2

$112.87

$10.18

$233.31

527

527

463

463

$9.97

$20.16

$213.15

-276.5

-276.5

Aug

1,102

520.8

$110.25

581.2

$123.03

$10.18

$243.47

551

551

466

466

$10.04

$20.22

$223.25

-191.5

-191.5

Sep

1,079

504

$106.69

575

$121.72

$9.86

$238.27

539.5

539.5

441.5

441.5

$9.51

$19.37

$218.90

-93.5

-93.5

Oct

794

520.8

$110.25

273.2

$57.83

$10.18

-$39.42

$138.85

397

397

388

388

$8.36

$0.00

$159.72

-84.5

-84.5

Nov

586

504

$106.69

82

$17.36

$9.86

$133.91

293

293

321.5

321.5

$6.92

$0.00

$133.91

-113

-113

Dec

604

313.1

$66.28

290.9

$61.58

$10.18

$138.05

302

302

281

281

$5.75

$6.31

$131.73

-92

-92

The table shows the estimated monthly savings for the 1st year under the time-of-use rate plan that comes with PG&E net metering, from a 5.6-kW solar installation on an average Bakersfield home, compared to a former tiered-rate plan.

*Any amount of kWh over usage is credited to the customer's account and used to reduce future months' bills.

The table above shows how solar will save you about $1,900 this year, given a typical usage pattern.

That’s great news, and it leaves you with a net cost of about $11,150 after the first year, which is less than 60% of the initial cost of the system. If you see typical rate increases of 3.5% per year from PG&E, your system’s cost will be fully paid back after just 7 years, and you’d have at least another 18 years of basically free electricity to save you money on your monthly bills.

Estimated lifetime savings for an average Bakersfield home with solar panels

Solar panels are warrantied to produce at least 85% of their original power rating by the end of the 25th year after installation. Over that period of time, the panels will pump out a net savings of $55,900. That’s HUGE.

Here’s how that looks as a bar chart of annual net cost/savings:

What’s the best way to pay for solar panels?

The calculations above assume that you’d pay for solar with cash up-front, which is the option that gives you the easiest path to ownership. But fear not! If you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend right now, you have options. You can still get solar panels, and because of how the federal tax credit works, it might actually be better financially to take a loan and pay off the panels over time.

If you’ve been looking for solar panels for your home, you’ve probably seen ads that promise “free solar panels!” and “$0-down solar.” While the latter is the more correct term, it is technically possible to get solar panels installed for free, and then pay over time, either buying the system with a loan or buying the electricity only with a power purchase agreement (PPA).

Switch to solar and save $36.45/mo on average ($0 installations may be available)

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